Professional Visit To Domaine Tempier

Last week I met up with Daniel at Tempier and tasted the 16s and ‘17s out of foudre.

The power, tannin, and energy of barrel sampled Bandol is a lot for your brain / palate to process, but once past the initial whack, it is amazing to see the grace, the fruit, and spirit emerge from these baby wines.

16 and 17 are back to back excellent vintages. They are ripe (though at this stage, not as ripe in profile as the ’15s), and they have incredible structure and finesse. The yields were low in ’16 and much lower in ’17.

The ’17 rose was pretty, perfumed, and open vs. showing any reduction. For those that pop it early, it should be super aromatic from the get go. Out of tank, it was seemingly lighter than I remember '16. I can still smell it.

I won’t bore you with a lot by lot run of each cuvée, but among some killer wines, my standouts were ’16 La Migoua and ’17 Cabassaou. HOLY Sh***!!! Both wines are still in pupa stage, but gawt-dang, the clarity, balance, and structure (with just enough baby fat) has these as two of the most remarkable wines I tried on my trip.

At the end of the tasting, Daniel blinded us on a few bottles. In a rare feat, I was in the zone, and got relatively close on each wine.

2006 La Migoua (guessed ’06 Cabassaou).
I think ‘06s are in a good spot right now. They are open, young, show they are from a warm vintage (though not like 03), and have a lot of charm. There is plenty of life but they are in a happy place. At home, 06s are a go to vintage for me if I want something with age without getting crazy.

1996 Cabassaou (guessed ’99 Cabassaou)
Perfumed (smells like classic older Tempier- herbs, dried flowers, savory, plum, etc) and it is in that spot where elegance is overtaking power. Long. A beautiful wine that will seemingly age for another decade.

1986 La Tourtine (guessed ’86 Cuvée Classique)
A tough year, but still a beautiful wine. Loosening up, aromatic, integrated tannins, beautiful weight. This would be a great wine to have with dinner right now. I really dug it.

1999 Bandol Blanc (guessed 99 Blanc)
A mature nose of citrus with some butterscotch and stoney / rocky notes. Incredible texture, mouthfeel, juicy acidity, and a long finish. This was a cool-a** wine. There isn’t a lot of blanc made and it was a treat to have one of these with almost 20 yrs on it.

I often scratch my head and wonder why these aren’t some of the most collected wines on the planet. They are relatively inexpensive and even in tough vintages are age worthy and compelling at 30+ years.

Though a peaceful man, I’m willing to fight people in the streets for the '16 Migoua.

The 15 regular Bandol red is available for a great price locally - you mentioned it being ripe, any other thoughts?

Great notes. While I did have the full experience you did, I visited the winery to taste in July 2013. Lovely wines and even though I own a decent amount, I often wonder why I don’t buy more. Will be on the look out for the ‘16s and ‘17s when released.

And Bandol itself is fantastic. Hope to get back there someday.

Thanks for the notes, Hardy. I made my own pilgrimage to Tempier a year ago (notes posted here). In recent years I’ve kicked myself for not buying and laying away Tempiers. It’s inexcusable since I knew how good they were even 30 years ago. What a moron I was!

I have a theory that wines which are easy to find every year, we tend to think we can hold off on buying them while we buy wines we perceive (rightly or wrongly) we need to get now (often mailing list wines).

Thus, we end up looking back and wondering why we didn’t buy more Ridge Geyserville or Tempier, but we just never felt like we had to load up on it, so we didn’t.

Agree

Hardy,
Thanks for the notes, I will add Migoa to the buy list in 16, normally get the tourtine and Cabassaou anyway

I would buy more Tempier, but I cannot get it locally. Every once in a while something pops up, and I grab whatever I can, but it’s not often.

It is a great wine. I tasted all the '15s out of foudre on a previous visit and they were very powerful. I’ve popped only one '15 cuvée classique since and confirmed the rest should go into long term storage. If approaching early, decant the day before and make something hearty / stewy / substantial. The '13 and '14 were weaker vintages but more approachable (for Bandol) right now.

I’ll probably pick up more '15 as I only have a couple of ea.

Question for you Hardy - how many of each of these benches have you had in the past that you were able to pick them out blind?

#jealousashell . . .

There’s a lot of truth to that.

Tempier isn’t nearly as widely available as the Ridge zins, though, certainly not on the East Coast. So out of sight, out of mind, I’m afraid.

I don’t know how one begins to even buy these wines but I’m up for drinking yours Hardy.

Just one or two- I’m just an excellent taster I’m kidding-

I haven’t tried every cuvée from 89 to present, but I have had a good spread and have at least tasted something from almost all of those vintages (plus some older wines here and there).

Please do! I always need a good excuse to pop some.

Glenn - Tempier is imported by Kermit Lynch. I’ve forgotten who distributes those wines in Oregon, but I’d expect them to be available through many wine retailers there. At a minimum, you should be able to have them shipped from one of the retailers in Portland, such as Vinopolis.

Michael

Sec usually has some, but not the Rose, which Vinopolis typically sells.

Truth speak.

I purchased mine direct previously from Kermit Lynch but now with shipping restrictions from retailers in IL I stopped…

Cheers,
JP

Ah, a visit to the Promised Land of mourvedre. No man is an island, are they? And no 2015’s?

Hardy, fascinating notes. Was in Bandol for a day several years ago and visited Pradeaux and Pibarnon, but not Tempier.

Your notes made me curious. Did your visit make you want to do anything differently in the way you make Mourvèdre?

+2

And oddly, they are easily sourced here locally and I have known for 20 years how good these wines can be.

Go figure.